HELPAGE India, an age-care organisation has been appointed corporate agent by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

Under a memorandum of understanding between HelpAge and LIC, the organisation, will distribute LIC's products, particularly those targeted at the rural sector.

HelpAge will plough back the commissions earned through the venture into development projects for elderly people. The MoU signed recently in Bangalore aims at improving the lives of disadvantaged elders across the country.

LIC has products for school children and HelpAge has a vast school education programme, spread over 3,000 schools across the nation. These products will be marketed there reaching the interiors of villages and slums.

"We have been collecting donations within India and overseas and are entering the marketing area through this tie-up with LIC," said Mr M.M. Sabharwal, President, HelpAge India. "We saw an opportunity to raise more resources to provide services to more older people, and we are therefore gearing ourselves up to do more."

HelpAge India feels the need to increase its work to reach a larger number of those who require its support. The insurance initiative has been taken to broad-base its resource generation activity.

In the last 26 years, HelpAge India has supported various types of programmes for needy older persons, at an estimated cost of Rs 200 crore.

These projects cover old age homes, day care centres, income generating activities and ophthalmic care programmes schemes. HelpAge India also runs 55 mobile medicare units for providing free medical care to the elderly in urban slums and far-flung rural areas.